Florida Man Reported Missing in Kona 10-04-01

A search resumed Thursday (October 4, 2001) for a Florida man reported missing in the area of the Keahole Natural Energy Laboratory (OTEC) in North Kona.

At 7:08 p.m., police received a call that the missing male, identified as Michael Wallis, 49, of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, was missing from a flycasting trip. The victim’s wife, Susan, said her husband went fishing at 6:30 a.m. and had failed to return to their hotel room by 1 p.m.

Mrs. Wallis told police she is a triathlete and that she and her husband were in Kona for the annual event, to be held on Saturday. She said she had several meetings to attend related to the event and had caught a ride with a fellow triathlete to the meetings. She said that when she returned to her hotel room about 6 p.m., she discovered her husband was missing.

She drove to the OTEC site and alerted the facility’s security personnel, who located the couple’s rental car north of the OTEC plant.

Fire Department personnel then searched the shoreline area after finding the victim’s casting pole near a blowhole south of the OTEC lighthouse. A search by air and boat rescue personnel, including a search by rescue divers in waters near the blowhole, found nothing.

The search was called off because of darkness and resumed at daybreak Thursday.